Attitudes Towards Homoparentality: Psychometric Validation of two Scales in a Sample of Mexican Students

Abstract

Introduction: The legalization of so-called same-sex marriage, and minor adoptions by homosexual couples, is a recent phenomenon that must be studied; for this reason, it is necessary to have reliable measures that allow giving on account of how society perceives this new family configuration. Objective: To determine the psychometric properties of two scales: Attitudes Towards Homoparental Families (AFFH), and beliefs about the adjustment of children from homoparental families (CANFH). Methodology: The AFFH, with 20-item scale, was designed to analyze the attitudes toward homoparental families. The CANFH has 14 items organized in two subscales, the individual opposition (OI) and normative opposition (ON). Both scales have statements that must be answered with Likert-type options ranging from 1 (totally agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). The CANFH was answered by 170 college students (78 (46%) males, 92 (54%) females; Average age: 18.4 SD 0.94), and the AFFH by 88 college students (35 (40%) males, 53 (60%) females, average age: 18.2 SD + 0.84). Also, the psychometric properties were determined by means of factorial analysis and internal consistency. Results: AFFH items were organized into two factors that explained the 46.14% of variance with a 0.91 Cronbach’s alpha. CANFH items were grouped in a two-factor subscale that explained the 65.49% of variance with a 0.94 Cronbach’s alpha. Conclusions: The data of both CANFH and AFFH scales have adequate psychometric properties to measure, not only Mexican college students’ attitudes toward same-sex families, but also to assess the beliefs about children’s adjustment in same-sex families. [Barragán-Pérez V, Berenzon-Gorn S, García-De la Torre GS, Lara-Muñoz MDC. Attitudes Towards Homoparentality: Psychometric Validation of two Scales in a Sample of Mexican Students. MedUNAB 2016; 19(2):85-94].